Archive for the ‘Domain Names’ Category

Web hosting is the perfect step to take if you wish to establish an online identity for your business and this will provide you with great benefits as it will offer you the chance to engage with a much wider audience and will also provide you with a platform that will allow you to offer your products and services to a greater number of people. A web hosting service will also provide you with services that will allow you to communicate with your customers and others in a variety of different ways; a good example of this would be email as if you have a domain name fixed up to your web hosting account, you will be able to use your web hosting account to setup email accounts that you can then use under your chosen domain name. Similarly you can also add contact forms and other features to your website that will then allow others to contact you using your web hosting account. A cheap web hosting package is probably going to be the most beneficial for you if you are using web hosting for the first time as it means that you won’t be risking too much if you find that your business’s web presence isn’t really working or that you require a higher end form of web hosting for your requirements.

If you are looking at extending your target audience then setting up a website on the internet is a good starting move since billions of people all over the world use the internet and any of these users will be able to access your website, thus meaning that you have a worldwide audience available at your fingertips. If you are selling products then you are going to be limited by physical factors such as where you will be able to ship your products to, but on the other hand if you are selling virtual services such as web hosting then there are no limits on who you will be able to sell your services to as you won’t have any physical factors affecting your delivery of the product. Furthermore the existence of your website will provide you with a destination that you can point any customers that you may have on a day to day basis to; in turn they will then be able to pass your website’s address on to anyone else that they feel could benefit from the goods or services that you sell.

Once you have uploaded your website and established it under your new web hosting account you can then proceed to start with the advertising of your new website using various services such as Google Adwords and other CPC (Cost Per Click) advertising programs. The main benefit of web hosting here is that you can choose your hosting location to help benefit your SEO efforts that you may carry out as these generally influence the effectiveness of most CPC programs. UK web hosting is recommended for UK based businesses and individuals that wish to target UK search engine listings; if you are on a lower budget and are looking to target a more international audience then US web hosting services will meet your requirements.

You will be able to choose between the Windows and Linux web hosting platforms depending on what your specific requirements are and this will benefit you if you are looking to develop using platform-specific code such as classic ASP or ASP.NET, two languages that are only compatible with Windows based web hosting servers. If you have chosen to develop your website using open source solutions such as PHP or Ruby then both Linux and Windows web hosting packages should be able to provide you with support for these.

Any web hosting service will allow you to setup email accounts for any domain names that you want to host under your web hosting account, thus allowing you to communicate with others from your domain name – this will help you to portray a professional image to your customers and those who you are communicating with via email. Access via POP3 and IMAP is a standard feature these days and similarly, you will be provided with access to a webmail interface for any of the email accounts that you setup.

In conclusion, web hosting is able to provide many advantages to businesses that are yet to establish themselves online. There is a wide variety of web hosting services available depending on what your requirements are exactly; if you are after a low cost web hosting service that will provide you with the bare basics to help you get started then a shared web hosting package will more than suffice for your requirements. VPS server hosting services and dedicated servers are aimed at higher end users that have a distinct need for power from their web hosting service.

Domain names form the basis of most websites as they are the address that your visitors will type in to visit your website. Domain name registration services are offered by a large number of web hosting provider to supplement their domain name hosting services which will allow you to keep all the services that are related to the running of your website with a single web hosting company. Domain names can be registered based on a number of different principles including the TLD (Top Level Domain) that you wish to use as well as the actual domain name (this is the only part that you will be able to alter manually). Domains are by no means free and you will have to pay to register a domain name – prices will normally vary depending on the TLD that you use; domain names that use an important name and are under a popular TLD can go for big money as they can be very beneficial to those who are looking to make the most of SEO. When choosing a domain name you will want to be sure that the address that you choose to register will be easy to remember because the key idea is that visitors will constantly return to your website – something that is unlikely if they can’t remember your address.

In order for a domain to be effective you need to hook it up to a web hosting package of some sort so that you are able to setup email accounts, FTP accounts and more importantly, so that you can host a website under your domain name so that people have something to view when they type your domain name into their web browser. Web hosting providers will generally offer you the choice between Linux web hosting services and Windows web hosting services – both will be able to offer you the same core features, albeit hosted on different platforms using different applications.

Although you’re going to have to pay for a domain name, securing a name that is important to you could be the difference between getting your business known online and forgetting about building a sustainable web presence. In some situations business men will simply build up a portfolio of well-defined domain names that they can then sell on as they wish to those who would like to purchase them as by doing so they can make a profit. If you are only using web hosting for the first time then you may wish to consider a web hosting package that will provide you with a domain name for free to begin with.

In order for a domain name to even stand a chance of functioning correctly, you will need to point it to DNS name servers that will be responsible for hosting the DNS records that will then point requests to your domain name towards the correct servers. DNS records are key for the delivery of email and to allow people to view your website as when someone types your address into their web browser, the DNS servers will respond to that query with the IP address of the server that is hosting your website. Email servers will make similar queries when attempting to deliver email to your domain name, as they will ask the DNS servers for the IP address of the servers that responsible for managing your domain name’s email.

DNS hosting is a standard feature of most web hosting packages and will allow you to ensure that everything is setup and configured correctly – however, if you are wanting to take things a bit further then you can always use your own DNS servers if you have a VPS server or dedicated server as this will provide you with a greater level of flexibility. Other features standard to most web hosting packages that will allow you to make the most of any domain name include email hosting and website hosting. It is important for you to also focus on the other less clear aspects of any domain name web hosting package that you may be considering, such as disk space and bandwidth; these are the two measures that you should always keep an eye on as they are usually the main effectors of the price of web hosting services.

In conclusion, domain name hosting will allow you to make the most of any domain names that you choose to register since it will provide you with a way in which you can setup a website and email accounts under your domain name. Domain names and web hosting services cost money but in the long run you will be able to reap the benefits of having established your web presence as those wishing to find you online will be able to do so with ease.

Domain hosting is a process by which companies or individuals can secure a website address – known as a domain name – and commission a company to host it on the internet. It is then up to the webmaster of that domain name to build and develop a website which is linked to from the registered domain name. When web visitors type in the web address of the specified domain, they will be directed to the associated website.

Domain names or web URLs are just site names that one enters in order to get access to a website. In technical terms, a website address comprises of a long sequence of specific numbers known as an IP address and the domain name is just a mask of that IP address. In short, domain names are just an easy reference to a site’s numerical location, so that the site’s visitors do not have to remember a complicated sequence of numbers in order to access it. They can also give the visitor a real idea of what the website will be about something very important for driving visitors to a site, and something that a set of numbers could not possibly do.

Purchasing a domain name and then hosting it on the internet are two separate processes, either done by the same or separate domain hosting companies, depending on which option is chosen. Some webmasters prefer to register their domain name and have their site hosted by the same domain hosting company as they like the idea of having everything administered by the same hosting organisation. Others prefer to purchase a domain from a website hosting company specializing in domain registration, many of whom charge less than if they were to buy it from the hosting company that they choose to host their site with. It is possible to move domains from a domain hosting company to company with relatively little cost or hassle, but is always worth checking each individual domain hosting company’s procedures before you go with them.

Free domain hosting services

For novice webmasters who cannot afford to buy hosting plans, the option of hosting their domain with a free domain host may be an attractive one. There are many that can be found on blogs and forums across the internet. These free web hosting companies should be approached with caution however. Firstly, you cannot use you own domain name in the web address or email address, as the company will insist that you use their details. Another downside of these free web hosts is that you may be obliged to fill your web site up with their advertising banners something that will detract from your brand identity, overall look and functionality of your website.

If you are serious about your business or project, you really should opt to have an individual domain name which refers to the products or services offered on your related website. That way people can easily find your website and just by reading your domain name can have an indication of what it is you do. It is also advisable to have a clean and crisp website within which you have control over what adverts or marketing, if indeed any are featured. Thus it is advised to host your domain name and website with a reputable domain hosting company.

Domain name registration is a supplementary service offered by many web hosting providers to accompany their web hosting services so that their customers are able to locate all of their web hosting related products with one service provider. Domain names normally take the form of the main name and then a TLD (either a global TLD or a country specific TLD) – TLD stands for ‘Top Level Domain‘; i.e. with the example of ‘domain.com’, the name would be ‘domain’ and the gTLD would be ‘.com’. Some web hosting providers are limited as to the TLDs they are able to offer to customers who wish to register domain names which is why there is still a market for independent domain name registrars. As a web hosting customer you will be able to make the most of the domain name registration services offered by most web hosting providers as a majority of web hosting companies are able to offer free domain names with specific web hosting services that they sell.

How can using a domain name benefit me?

Using a domain name will allow you to make the most of the web hosting service that you have purchased from your web hosting provider. A domain name will allow you to unlock the following common features of most web hosting services:

Email accounts – email accounts can be setup using any form of web hosting available but in order for email to work you will need to have a domain name available for use – a domain name can be hooked up to any web hosting service that supports email accounts allowing you to then create email addresses ending with ‘@domain.com’, with ‘domain.com’ being your domain name – it is a good idea to note that if you have no web hosting service to use then most domain name registrars will provide you with free email forwarding services

Website – a domain name will provide you with an easy to remember address that you can then pass on to customers and those who are interested in viewing your website – although you will require a web hosting package if you wish to display a website under your domain name, it does mean that as a business you can exploit this new opportunity to the maximum which will allow you to make more money if for example you choose to put an online store up under your domain name

Corporate identity – a domain name will help you with the branding of your business if you are going to be using it for business purposes since it provides you with another point of contact for your customers – it is important for you to make sure that the domain name you choose fits in well with the name of your business if you wish to promote your business online using the domain name that you have purchased, and people will also have a better chance of finding you through search engines if you use your business name as part of your domain name.

Domain names can be registered quite cheaply meaning that as a business there is no reason why you shouldn’t invest in registering a domain name.

What is the domain registration process?

The process to register a domain name is fairly simple and it doesn’t matter which domain registrar or web hosting provider you choose to use since the process will be the same anywhere. It is important to take the following points into consideration when registering a domain name:

Registration period – all domains are registered for a set amount of time and the price that you pay for a domain name will depend on how long you register it for – most gTLD domains are registered for one year minimum although certain ccTLD domains such as those ending with ‘.uk’ have to be registered for a minimum of two years – after that time you will need to pay to renew your domain name

Copyright and trademarks – if your domain name includes a trademarked name that you don’t own then you may be requested to handover the domain name concerned to the owner of the trademark – registering a domain name that contains a trademarked could be seen by some as copyright infringement.

In conclusion, domain names can provide businesses with another way of promoting themselves via the internet but can also allow individuals to setup their own web pages. Domain name registration is a service provided by many web hosting providers but since a majority will be using the same underlying resellers it is unlikely that prices are going to vary greatly between hosting providers.